Injured Vikas Krishan fails to make weight in final, settles for silver

Vikas Krishan’s promising run at the Asian boxing Olympic qualifiers ended on a slightly underwhelming note ahead of his gold medal bout on Wednesday after the 28-year-old welterweight failed to make the weight owing to an injury.

The incident had taken place during the second round of his semi-final bout against Kazakhstan’s Ablaikhan Zhussupov, when an accidental clash of heads saw Vikas Krishan bleeding from beneath his left eyebrow.

Though Vikas Krishan overcame his injury to win the bout against his Kazakh counterpart and reach the final, he couldn’t continue in the tournament thereafter.

“He has a cut on the left eyelid and because of the injury, he could not sweat and finally he couldn't make the weight for the bout this morning,” India’s High-Performance Director and coach Santiago Nieva told the Olympic Channel.

Vikas Krishan’s run at Asian boxing Olympic qualifier

Returning from professional boxing to have one last go at an Olympic medal, Vikas Krishan couldn’t have started his Asian boxing Olympic qualifiers campaign on a better note.

Coming to the continental qualifiers at the back of wins against compatriots Ashish Kulheria and Duryodhan Singh Negi at the national trials, Vikas Krishan won his first two bouts in Jordan through a unanimous decision, which sealed his 2020 Olympics berth.

Vikas Krishan defeated Japan’s Sewonrets Okazawa and Kyrgyzstan’s Nursultan Mamataly quite comprehensively in the first two rounds to set up a semi-final against Zhussupov and was supposed to face fourth-seeded Zeyad Eishaih Hussein Eashash of Jordan in the final.

A seasoned Olympian

The 2020 Olympics in Tokyo will be the third consecutive Olympics for Vikas Krishan after he competed in the 2012 London and the 2016 Rio Games.

While Vikas Krishan couldn’t go past the preliminary round in London he was just one win away from an Olympic medal in Rio, where he lost to Uzbekistan’s Bektemir Melikuziev in the quarter-finals.

He followed the 2016 Olympics with a gold medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and a bronze medal in the 2018 Asian Games, where he had to withdraw with an eye injury.

When and where to watch the Asian boxing Olympic qualifiers

You can follow all the action from the Asian boxing Olympic qualifiers live exclusively on the Olympic Channel as well as our Facebook page. The evening session is scheduled to begin at 8:30 PM IST.

You can also follow the daily live blog in both English and Hindi on the Olympic Channel.